This summer, I was able to play a part in doing something special for a very special person. His name is Louie Di Florio, or to most of his family he’s Nonnie, a variant of Nonno or grandfather, or at least that’s how this endearing term got adopted in his family. Louie is a friend of the family; I guess or I could more accurately say Louie is my brother-in-law’s Nonnie-in-law; as I said, it’s probably best to think of him as a friend of the family. I only came to know Louie when our family moved to the Maple, Ontario area about 15 years ago. At that time, Maple was a small but growing suburb of Toronto and my brother-in-law lived in the area as did his mother-in-law, Marilyn who shared, and still shares, a home with her parents Violet and Louie. Since they are elderly, and just around the corner from us, I often go by with my son to cut the grass and help out around the house. These little visits often end in Louie inviting my son and I to go down to his workshop to have a look at his latest project. 

Louie is an artist and a craftsman like none that I have ever met. He was trained as a Toymaker at Reliable Toys in Toronto. After about 18 years at Reliable, Louie’s went into business on his own to making original stuffed animals and sold them to stores and chains such as Stedmans, S.S. Kresky’s and directly to fairs and arcades in the Toronto area.  There’s much more to come on Louie as a toymaker in a subsequent story but I first met him, he was already retired at about 75 years young. At that time, Louie’s past-time was creating his own home-built remote controlled aircraft. I don’t mean the kits you can buy from a hobby store; I mean, Louie, taking a picture out of an airplane magazine, buying some balsa wood, an engine and a remote control kit, and making a totally custom model airplane. Some of these would have wing-spans of over 6 feet and an engine large enough to power a lawn mower and of course, they flew like great birds.

About 7 or 8 years ago, Louie took up making model cars from pictures or miniature replicas of the classics. He’s done a 1930 Mercedes Benz SSK (pictured here), the Model-T Ford, a 1943 VW Kubelwagen (later called the “VW Thing”), a Model-A Ford, which he so generously gave to me, and many more classics. These works of art were fashioned from his own designs out of balsa wood with hand-crafted spoke wheels, hand painted tires made from vinyl tubing and exhausts formed from metal of flex tubing as required to fit the bill. 

At some point earlier in his multi-faceted career, Louie took up sketching famous stars like Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Tyrone Power, Glen Ford and many more. Louie’s son Anthony still has these originals, signed by the stars, framed and hanging in his family room. Anyway, after his run on classic automobile models, Louie decided to go back to sketching and produced some beautiful renderings of his great grandchildren and great grand-nieces and nephews. As a die-hard Toronto Blue Jays fan, Louie also decided to try his hand at sketching some of his favorite players like Jose Bautista and Ricky Romero.

One afternoon, while I was visiting, Louie showed me his latest sketch of Ricky and expressed his interest in having it framed and in finding a way to present it to him at a Jays’ game. The following weekend, I took Louie out to a custom framing store that I deal with a lot and he picked out a fine looking frame and mat combination, of course in blue to match the Jays’ team colours. Here you can see a picture of Loiue the day I picked up the framed sketch and brought it back home to him. He was delighted with the result and was now more determined than ever to actually present it to Ricky Romero in person. That was going to be a bit more challenging to fulfill but as mom has always said, “where there’s a will, there’s a way”.

Professionally, I have had the good fortune to work with my employer to support a great charity in the Toronto area, the Jays Care Foundation. This is a fantastic charity that works with the Jays organization and its many sponsors to provide help for under-privileged children. The Foundation’s current chairperson is Melinda Rogers, daughter of the late great Canadian telecommunications pioneer, Ted Rogers. With Melinda’s help, I found my way to Danielle Bedasse, Executive Director of the Foundation and the rest was a piece of cake. When Danielle saw the photo of Louie with his sketch for Ricky, she had no hesitation in agreeing to make Louie’s dream come true.

On July 2^nd, 2012, in Louie’s 90^th year, he would be going to yet another Blue Jays game but this time, it would be in first-class style along with me, Louie’s son Anthony and his grand son-in-law Lorne. We were escorted down to the ball field for the batting practice where we watched the warm-up at field level for about an hour. I’ve enclosed a shot of Louie, Anthony and Lorne down at the field as we watched the practice and waited to meet Ricky. It was surreal to be this close to the action and to see both the Jays and the Kansas City Royals warming up before the game. At the end of the practice, the players started to walk back to the dugout and the dressing room but Ricky made a left turn to come over and greet one of his biggest fans. If watching the practice was surreal, seeing Ricky come over and introduce himself to Louie and receive the framed sketch was totally out of the park I guess we could say.

We were then escorted back upstairs to VIP seats to watch a great ball game that the Jays ended up taking 6-to 3 with a fabulous 6-run, 4^th inning. Louie thanked me for making this work out, but of course it was all Danielle’s doing. On the way home, when Louie said thanks again, I motioned to him that he’s a great person, and it’s easy to understand why people would want to do nice things for him. Then Louie, this mild mannered, soft spoken man, that I have never, ever, heard curse, said something that was both surprising and very inspiring.  He said, “Hmm, a great person, well, nobody ever told me to “F*©! off”, so, yes, I guess I’m an okay person”. So, there, from the man who I’ve heard utter so many other words of wisdom, is a new way to evaluate the life that I live; I hereby vow to try to live the rest of my life with that high standard of quality in mind.  Many happy returns my friends.